Brandwatch and similar social listening platforms are powerful tools when it comes to tracking what people are saying online – especially around high-interest topics like sustainability, ethics, and ESG. But these tools require more than just technical know-how to use effectively. Without proper research expertise, the insights pulled from values-based discussions can be shallow, misleading, or even totally off-track.

Values-Based Behavior Is Hard to Quantify

Conversations around sustainability are often emotional, nuanced, and deeply personal. Consumers might talk about climate anxiety, ethical purchasing, or distrust of corporations. But without clear context – such as core motivations, cultural norms, or societal expectations – it’s easy to misread these signals.

DIY research users may rely too heavily on keyword volume, sentiment scores, or trend lines. While helpful indicators, these metrics alone rarely capture the full picture. For example, an increase in brand mentions during Earth Month could reflect praise – or it could reflect backlash about greenwashing. Determining the difference requires human judgment and experience interpreting values-driven discourse.

ESG Expectations Vary Widely

Environmental, social, and governance topics don’t exist in a vacuum. What matters to younger US consumers may not carry the same weight in European markets, and a brand’s ESG efforts in one sector may be scrutinized differently in another. DIY analysis often overlooks these contextual layers, leading to generalized insights that fail to drive local or audience-specific action.

Cultural Sustainability Trends Evolve Fast

Online conversations move quickly, especially on platforms like X (formerly Twitter), Reddit, and Instagram. Movements can rise and fade overnight. Terms like “climate justice,” “slow fashion,” or “carbon transparency” mean different things to different demographics – and these meanings are constantly shifting. DIY tools can monitor these signals, but alerting you that a hashtag is trending is not the same as understanding why it matters or how to respond.

Why Human Expertise Still Matters

Platforms like Brandwatch offer a scalable solution for data collection, but interpretation is where the real value lies. That’s where expert consumer insights professionals come in. With the help of On Demand Talent – experienced strategists, analysts, and researchers – you get more than graphs. You get context, judgment, and clear recommendations that align your sustainability research with your brand’s goals.

Instead of losing research quality by going all-in on DIY tools, organizations can use On Demand Talent as a flexible way to bridge the gap – maximizing the investment in social listening platforms while keeping the work grounded, strategic, and credible.

Many teams jump into Brandwatch hoping to quickly track sustainability conversations and extract insights for content, strategy, or ESG reporting. But when research is rushed or handled without experienced support, common missteps can lead to poor-quality findings and misinformed decisions. Here’s where things often go wrong – and how expert-led guidance can make a difference.

1. Using the Wrong Keywords or Boolean Queries

Setting up a Brandwatch sustainability study starts with defining what you want to track – but this is trickier than it seems. Teams often build queries too narrowly (missing important side conversations) or too broadly (resulting in irrelevant noise). For example, a query for "climate change AND your brand name" may miss impactful terms like "decarbonization," "greenwashing," or "net zero" that customers are actually using.

Expert researchers know how to craft adaptive keyword structures, incorporating brand-specific language, emerging terms, and regional variations to ensure a more comprehensive capture.

2. Misinterpreting Sentiment and Emotion

Sentiment scoring can be misleading when applied to emotionally nuanced topics. A sarcastic post criticizing a green campaign may show up as neutral. A user questioning a company’s climate claims could be flagged as negative, when in fact it reveals deep engagement and trust.

Professionals trained in human-centered analysis can spot these subtleties. On Demand Talent can help train internal teams to better interpret emotion, skepticism, and activism across sustainability-related posts.

3. Neglecting Context and Cultural Relevance

Not all mentions are created equal. A spike in chatter about sustainable packaging in one region could mean success – or signal compliance issues. Without cultural context or industry benchmarks, teams may draw inaccurate conclusions. DIY users may not recognize these blind spots.

On Demand Talent brings cultural fluency and sector-specific knowledge, ensuring that your findings reflect the context behind the conversation – not just surface-level impressions.

4. Focusing Only on Trends, Not Themes

Trending topics are useful, but they don’t always align with business priorities. Teams often get caught up in what’s hot right now instead of identifying lasting themes that matter to their stakeholders and long-term ESG strategy.

Trained researchers go beyond top-line trends to extract patterns, contradictions, and opportunities that drive actionable change – not just clickable headlines.

Common Mistakes Summary:

• Unfocused or incomplete search setup
• Over-reliance on sentiment without human interpretation
• Lack of cultural and category understanding
• Focusing on volume, not meaning or strategy

The solution isn’t abandoning tools like Brandwatch – it’s augmenting them with the right expertise. With On Demand Talent from SIVO, you tap into a deep network of insights leaders who know how to turn raw sustainability conversations into clear, trusted ESG insights. Using these experts is not only smarter than hiring freelancers or committing to a long-term agency – it’s faster, more tailored, and built for how your team works.

Sustainability research often goes beyond tracking brand mentions or gauging sentiment. When you’re exploring topics like ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) performance or values-based consumer behavior, the language gets more nuanced — and much harder to measure with DIY research tools like Brandwatch alone.

Understanding ESG expectations means decoding how people talk about environmental responsibility, ethical business practices, and long-term corporate impact. The challenge? These conversations don’t follow tidy hashtag trends or simple keywords. Consumers and stakeholders express sustainability concerns in ways that are emotionally driven, culturally shaped, and often layered with skepticism — especially around topics like greenwashing, climate claims, or ethical sourcing.

Why ESG Narratives Are Difficult to Track in Brandwatch

While Brandwatch is powerful for social listening, it relies on what you feed into it — the queries, topics, and filters you define. Without expert input, some traps researchers fall into include:

• Using too-broad ESG terms that return irrelevant or noisy data
• Missing culturally specific language or slang used in sustainability discussions
• Failing to distinguish between genuine values-based advocacy and viral backlash
• Overlooking regional or demographic differences in how ESG topics are framed

For example, if you’re studying consumer expectations around plastic alternatives, simply tracking mentions of “sustainable packaging” may miss conversations tied to “zero waste,” “low-impact living,” or “eco-anxiety,” depending on the audience. Without context or precise tuning, these important nuances are lost.

Expert insights professionals use market research best practices to structure Brandwatch studies that accurately reflect the ESG themes you care about. Instead of casting a wide net, they help fine-tune Boolean search logic to identify meaningful trends, align results with real stakeholder expectations, and integrate relevant subtopics like labor transparency, circularity, or DEI impacts under one cohesive sustainability lens.

Even with smart queries and a well-scoped project, pulling sustainability insights from social listening requires more than just access to Brandwatch. It requires understanding human behavior, cultural cues, and context – none of which can be fully automated. This is where experienced insights professionals make the biggest difference.

Sustainability-related conversations are layered and symbolic. A single trending tweet might refer to corporate climate action, consumer boycotts, or personal eco-anxiety – and each implies something different about what audiences value. Without human interpretation, it’s easy to misread sentiment, generalize findings, or overlook issues that aren’t explicitly stated but are strongly felt.

DIY researchers using Brandwatch alone might interpret rising mentions of a brand’s name in climate conversations as positive engagement — when in reality, they could signal backlash related to greenwashing or unfulfilled promises.

Expert insights talent applies frameworks for:

• Interpreting emotionally charged content and detecting underlying values
• Contextualizing trends against real-world events, cultural movements, or competitor actions
• Separating signal from noise and identifying the themes that truly matter to your audience
• Integrating cross-platform conversations to build a fuller picture (e.g., social vs. forums vs. media coverage)

One fictional example: A startup tracking discourse around plant-based packaging might see a spike in negative sentiment in the data. A less-experienced tool user may assume rejection of the entire concept. An expert, however, could identify that the backlash is aimed at a misleading campaign by a competitor — an opportunity to refine their own messaging and positioning.

Ultimately, combining Brandwatch data with human expertise turns volume into value. It’s the difference between saying "People are talking about sustainability" and "Here’s what your audience expects from you on sustainability — and what action drives their trust."

Most research teams are under pressure. Timelines are tight, budgets are shrinking, and there’s a push to show impact fast — all while experimenting with new tools like Brandwatch. This is exactly where SIVO’s On Demand Talent delivers strategic flexibility and deep expertise without adding headcount or long-term contracts.

On Demand Talent pairs you with seasoned insights professionals who know how to get the most out of DIY research tools like Brandwatch. They’re not interns or learning on the job — they’re experienced researchers who’ve led brand, ESG, and consumer studies across industries. Whether you’re running your first sustainability study or building a robust ESG monitoring program, they can help you hit the ground running.

Why Teams Choose On Demand Talent for Sustainability Research

Our On Demand Talent helps insight teams:

• Close skill gaps – Add specialized experience in ESG insights, social listening, or cultural trend analysis without a full-time hire
• Strengthen tool strategy – Apply correct search structures, categorization logic, and best-fit frameworks so Brandwatch works smarter
• Up-skill internal teams – Teach your researchers how to ask better questions, synthesize complex data, and interpret signals with precision
• Scale research without sacrificing quality – Tackle urgent project needs without diluting rigor or overburdening your core team

One of the top benefits? Our professionals not only deliver quality results but also embed smarter ways of working. We’ve seen clients quickly advance from basic keyword studies to nuanced ESG tracking programs designed around changing values and cultural expectations – all with the help of flexible, expert support.

In an era where DIY research tools are everywhere, the real differentiator is how you use them. With the right guidance, you get more than data — you build a stronger, more capable insights team equipped to lead on sustainability strategy, not just react to it.